Video - Darren Rafferty in epic breakaway ride at 'Alps', moves up overall

Darren Rafferty was up the road for well over 100km and may have made it all the way but for an ill-timed late attack by one of his team mates (Photo: Massimo Fulgenzi)

Darren Rafferty (EF Education-EasyPost) was up the road for 130km at Tour of the Alps (2.Pro) with just Sam Oomen (Lidl-Trek) for company. And but for a questionable attack in the closing stages by Rafferty’s team mate, Juan Felipe Rodriguez, they may have stayed away.

The attack by the Colombian did not close down the two leaders, but it very much helped to rub out their advantage, at precisely the moment it looked like they just might make it all the way.

Still, while Rafferty and Oomen were caught with just over 3km remaining, the Irish rider has has moved up the general classification, to 16th overall, and looks like he is in fantastic form.

Rafferty finished in the 38-rider peloton and gained six bonus seconds at intermediate sprints today. And when a huge chunk of the field lost time - almost 40 of whom were outside the time limit - the Irish rider shot up the overall standings to 16th.

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He is now just 50 seconds off yesterday's stage winner, and still race leader, Giulio Pellizzari (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe), and is only 21 seconds off 7th overall.

Today's stage was won by Tom Pidcock (Pinarello Q36.5 Pro Cycling), beating Tommaso Dati (Team UKYO) into 2nd place after the young Italian, riding for a Continental team, scalped the British star on the opening day.

Egan Bernal (Ineos Grenadiers) was 3rd today, getting into the mix in the reduced bunch sprint, having also been in the front group on yesterday's uphill finish. The Colombian is now 3rd overall.

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Today's stage was marred by a bad crash before the TV coverage started, with around 30 riders coming down with 2km completed. Among those forced out of the race with injuries was U23 road race world champion Lorenzo Finn (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe Rookies).

The race was stopped for about 30 minutes and when it got going again there was a flurry of attacks, with Rafferty and Oomen eventually the only ones to get clear. They worked away at it for the next 130km but were only given an advantage of two minutes by the bunch.

After taking in the first climb - the 22.4km Passo Castrin averaging 5.7 per cent - and racing down the other side, the two leaders had their two-minute gap. And while that advantage was chipped away at in the second half of the stage, they still had 40 seconds with 17km to go.

But then Rodriguez attacked and the remains of the main field went after him. That activity on the final climb brought Rafferty and Oomen back to 16 seconds going over the top, with just 14km remaining and most of that downhill.

That gap was so small, it spurred on the teams of those riders with a chance in a sprint. And when the two leaders were caught, Pidcock made no mistake, taking his third win of the season.

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